Why Poetry
Happy National Poetry Month, Poetry Soup...
Poetry should not be considered a luxury
Only to be enjoyed by the privileged few…
The cultural and cerebral elite.
Poetry need not be weighed down
By deeply ponderous metaphysical messages
To be worth one's time to read it.
But why do we many who are not privileged enough
To belong to the aforementioned categories need poetry?
We need poetry to tell us about things
Like joy and beauty,
And passion and love,
And wonder and wisdom,
And creativity and truth.
In other words…
Everything that gives life merit
And makes the living it
And the telling about it all worthwhile.
Most things in life are ephemeral, at best.
All things, in time…
Monoliths and monarchs,
Pyramids and politics,
Religions and reliquaries,
Baseless bigotries and, yes, even books…
Wear out, corrode,
Rot and decay,
And eventually turn to dust
And are erased from memory.
Poets, too, after passing through, will pass away,
But the spirit they infuse
In the verses they create and leave behind
Becomes, somehow, infused
With the metered,
Albeit chaotically cadenced spirit
Of the poetry of the universe,
And becomes, therefore, eternal,
And indestructible.
Copyright © Jim Slaughter | Year Posted 2023
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